We hear these theories about the U.S. Army bringing (the new coronavirus) to China or the virus escaped a Chinese lab — false, but carefully placed stories by people who are looking to create that false narrative.

What have been the most troubling conspiracies regarding COVID-19?

I’m most troubled by accounts by public health workers and hospital staff around the country who have been asked to manipulate or underreport data on COVID cases. Florida is an example, around the time they were looking to reopen their economy, and also Georgia, where nurses were asked to underreport hospitalization data. If those accounts are true, those are actual conspiracies.

The (alleged) 5G and COVID link (that new 5G cell towers help spread the coronavirus) doesn’t sound plausible, but there were people against the rollout of 5G before COVID. They create this link and it’s pretty outlandish, but 5G towers in the United Kingdom were destroyed as a result.

Is misinformation inevitable in our highly politicized, two-party society?

Misinformation existed long before our society became so divided. It’s our psychology that makes the adoption and spread of misinformation inevitable. Because we’re in this time of fear and uncertainty, it’s normal to feel this sense of losing control. That’s what causes us to seek out and spread misinformation and to seek these alternative realities.